1. Field of the Invention
The present application is directed to a family of resettable circuit interrupting devices and systems that comprises ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI's), arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI's), immersion detection circuit interrupters (IDCI's), appliance leakage circuit interrupters (ALCI's), equipment leakage circuit interrupters (ELCI's), circuit breakers, contactors, latching relays and solenoid mechanisms. More particularly, the present application is directed to circuit interrupting devices that include a circuit interrupting portion that can break electrically conductive paths between a line side and a load side of the devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many electrical wiring devices have a line side, which is connectable to an electrical power supply, and a load side, which is connectable to one or more loads and at least one conductive path between the line and load sides. Electrical connections to wires supplying electrical power or wires conducting electricity to the one or more loads are at line side and load side connections. The electrical wiring device industry has witnessed an increasing call for circuit breaking devices or systems which are designed to interrupt power to various loads, such as household appliances, consumer electrical products and branch circuits. In particular, electrical codes require electrical circuits in home bathrooms and kitchens to be equipped with ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI), for example. A more detailed description of a GFCI device is provided in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,894, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Presently available GFCI devices, such as the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,894 (the '894 patent), use an electrically activated trip mechanism to mechanically break an electrical connection between the line side and the load side. Such devices are resettable after they are tripped by, for example, the detection of a ground fault. In the device discussed in the '894 patent, the trip mechanism used to cause the mechanical breaking of the circuit (i.e., the conductive path between the line and load sides) includes a solenoid (or trip coil). A test button is used to test the trip mechanism, circuitry is used to sense faults, and a reset button is used to reset the electrical connection between line and load sides.
However, instances may arise where an abnormal condition caused by, for example, a lightning strike which may result not only in a surge of electricity at the device and a tripping of the device, but also a disabling of the trip mechanism used to cause the mechanical breaking of the circuit. This can occur without the knowledge of the user. Under such circumstances an unknowing user, having a GFCI which has tripped, may press the reset button which, in turn, will cause the device with an inoperative trip mechanism to be reset without the ground fault protection being available.
Further, an open neutral condition, which is defined in Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Standard PAG 943A, may exist with the electrical wires supplying electrical power to such GFCI devices. If an open neutral condition exists with the neutral wire on the line (versus load) side of the GFCI device, an instance may arise where a current path is created from the phase (or hot) wire supplying power to the GFCI device through the load side of the device and a person to ground. In the event that an open neutral condition exists, current GFCI devices, which have tripped, may be reset even though the open neutral condition may remain.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,967 which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, describes a family of resettable circuit interrupting devices capable of locking out the reset portion of the device if the circuit interrupting portion is non-operational or if an open neutral condition exists.
Some of the circuit interrupting devices described above have a user accessible load side connection in addition to the line and load side connections. The user accessible load side connection includes one or more connection points where a user can externally connect to the electrical power supplied from the line side. The load side connection and user accessible load side connection are typically electrically connected together. An example of such a circuit interrupting device is a GFCI receptacle, where the line and load side connections are binding screws and the user accessible load side connection is a typical two or three hole receptacle used in power outlets for connection to electrical devices typically using a two-prong or three-prong male plug. As noted, such devices are connected to external wiring so that line wires are connected to the line side connection and load side wires are connected to the load side connection. However, instances may occur where the circuit interrupting device is improperly connected to the external wires so that the load wires are connected to the line side connection and the line wires are connected to the load connection. This is known as reverse wiring. In the event the circuit interrupting device is reverse wired, in the prior art devices, fault protection to the user accessible load connection may be eliminated, even if fault protection to the load side connection remains. Further, because fault protection is eliminated the user accessible terminals (i.e., three hole or two hole receptacles) will have electrical power making a user think that the device is operating properly when in fact it is not. Additionally, some circuit interrupting devices may preclude power by not allowing reset when it is reverse wired. In this instance, the user or installer may erroneously believe that the device is defective.
Therefore, there exists a need for a device which is correctly wired regardless of which wires, the load wires or the line wires are connected to the line side connection of the device. Thus, there is a need for a device which cannot be reversed wired.